Irish Government Gives up on Blackberry, Will they return for BlackBerry 10?

The Irish government has announced that it will be dropping support for Blackberrys and in turn they will settle for iPhones and Android devices, according to SiliconRepublic. The switch affects Teachta Dála’s (TD’s) in the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). Irish government officials government, feels that BlackBerry is no longer a cost effective solution to maintain BlackBerry support.

One of the reasons Blackberry support is being dropped is the Oireachtas ICT unit no longer wishes to pay to keep a BlackBerry Enterprise Server running when no such server is required for Android or iPhone devices.

“The provision of support for BlackBerrys carries the additional cost of two separate servers, power, cooling, administration and annual support,” the spokesperson explained.

With these new changes the Irish government has setup a program where officials can buy iPads wholesale and allow TD’s to refund the cost to the Oireachtas. Originally the Oireachtas planned to buy the iPads outright and then distribute them to members, but because of budgetary constraints, the government has decided that they will reimburse the iPad purchases.

Purchasing all new iPads, however, is a budget-cutting move, reports SR:

One of the reasons the Oireachtas Commission appears determined to pursue the rollout of iPads is a ‘print on demand’ strategy with respect to parliamentary documents.

An Oireachtas Commission spokesperson confirmed the move was part of a strategy to reduce print production costs throughout Leinster House.

The idea is that instead of every office or department having printers, a smaller number of strategically located printers around Leinster House and Dail Eireann will be able to detect a member’s iPad via Apple’s AirPrint wireless technology and print a document from the iPad.

Not sure how Government officials will fret with Apple and Android counterparts for the security of BlackBerry, will things change when BlackBerry 10 is released? Only time will tell.